HALL, OAKLEY M. Corpus of Joe Bailey. Viking 1953, Permabooks 1955, (m). Also contains a pathetic pair of lesbians, one camouflaging her true leanings by pretending to be the campus whore.
HARDY, THOMAS. Desperate Remedies. Harper 1896; still in print, London, the Macmillan Co, 1951 ($3.00). Brief but relevant episode in a novel by a classic English novelist.
+ HARRIS, SARA. The Wayward Ones. Crown 1952, pbr Signet 1956,57 One of the few really good treatments of lesbian attachments in a girl’s reform school. Bessie, a wayward girl, is sent to a “good” reform school; at this stage she is naive, fairly innocent and presumably redeemable. The loneliness, the sadistic persecution by the corrupt or hardened matrons, and the “racket”—the enforced division of the school into “moms” and “pops”, by hardened young girl hooligans who like the power it gives them, and permitted by the matrons under the self-deception that these attachments are normal, schoolgirlish crushes—finally complete the girl’s corruption until it is certain that she will come out of school a confirmed young criminal, Sara Harris is herself a social worker; this painfully accurate picture of what our juvenile authorities contend with may, at least, give some insight into why the police and social agencies tend to be so violently anti-lesbian, It is hard to forget the picture painted in this book of the frightened Bessie insisting “I don’t never do no lovin’ with girls.’”—and the threats made to her. An absolute MUST book—on the other side.
HARRIS, WILLIAM HOWARD. The Golden Jungle. Doubleday 1957, pbr Berkley 1958. Brittle novel about a wall street banker; his beautiful wife is a lesbian, but he naively believes her faithful because she prefers the company of women.
+ HASTINGS, MARCH. Demands of the Flesh. Newsstand Library pbo, 1959. Ellen, a young widow suffering from physical frustration, goes through a period of promiscuity involving several men and a brief affair with a lesbian, Nita. Oddly enough for this sort of borderline-risque stuff, the lesbian character is well and realistically drawn; realizing that Ellen is basically normal, she helps keep her on an even keel until she remarries. Good of kind.
Three Women. pbo Beacon Books 1958. Good and sympathetic story of a young girl involved with a basically decent older woman, a lesbian, Byrne. Unfortunately Byrne is deeply involved with, and obligated to, her Insane cousin Greta, and the affair ends in tragedy, leaving young Paula to marry her faithful boy friend. The lesbian interlude, however, is treated not as a “twisted love in the shadows” or any such cliche matter, but simply as a human relationship, in its' total effect on Paula’s personality; and she always remembers Byrne with affectionate regret. Excellent of kind.
The Obsessed. Newstand Library Magenta Books, 1959. The psychoanalysis of a nymphomaniac, including an affair with her boy-friend’s lesbian sister. Not nearly as good as March Hastings’other books, and much more dedicated to sexy scenes at the expense of character and situation. Evening waster—almost scv. (It should be noted that some paperback publishers insist on a specified number of sex scenes, and in such a book as this one can almost hear the weary sigh with which the author abandons his story, which is going well, and stops everything for another measured dose of sexy writing for the nitwit audience.)
HECHT, BEN. The Sensualists. Messner, 1959, pbr Dell 1959. A great deal of advance publicity built this up to a best-seller. Highly sensational shock-stuff; a supposedly happily-married woman discovers her husband is having an affair with a singer, Liza. When she comes in contact with Liza, however, she realizes that Liza is a lesbian, having affairs with men for camouflage purposes, and is soon herself captivated by Liza. From here events build up to highly shocking climaxes, including a ghastly murder. Not to be read after dark.